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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of King County Library System.
May 14, 2018RebelBelle13 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I was not overly impressed with this one. It was simply ok. There was nothing memorable about it or anything that made it stand out from any other contemporary novel of the same type. Couple moves to new town. Wife looks for job. Finds job helping old woman. Old woman reveals her past to wife while teaching her a skill or spending time with her. The story focuses heavily around the manor house where Sylvia (old woman) grew up, and continues to be a driving force in the story up until the very end. I did learn quite a bit about quilting, although a lot of it went over my head since I listened to it on audiobook (I'm more of a visual learner, and had I known the author was going to go into so much detail about the quilting patterns I would have picked up a hard copy, hoping that some of the explanations and patterns were in there). I don't think I liked any of the characters in this book. Sarah was wimpy and wishy-washy, Matt was goofy, Sylvia was stubborn and vengeful (and probably could have used a good dose of therapy), Claudia was inflexible and harsh, Agnes was childish and spoiled, and I didn't know the husbands well enough to make judgments on them. There were obvious points in the novel where Chiaverini was deliberately drawing out Sylvia's story points just to make the book longer and add cliffhangers where they weren't needed. At one point, she stopped telling Sarah her story when the husbands went off to war. Sarah didn't immediately ask the question that ANY PERSON LISTENING would have asked- what happened to them. We don't find out for 3 chapters. This happens several times- Sylvia stops telling her history simply because it makes sense for the pacing of the novel. I might be interested in continuing in the series, but as it stands, this is a cute, but entirely forgettable novel.